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Opinion Pieces

Summer has ended and that means it’s back to school time for families across the country.
For those parents who recently loaded up the car and dropped their kids off at college, the excitement of a nother year of school is tempered by another year of looming tuition bills and ever-increasing education expenses.

For too many children in the foster care system, their lives have been filled with instability, abuse, and neglect. Often these children are passed from home to home not knowing how long they will stay in one place or who they can trust. The psychological toll of such an environment makes it all too easy for human trafficking rings to target vulnerable foster care youth and force them into what can only be described as modern day slavery. That is why lawmakers, community leaders and law enforcement agencies are joining forces to prevent the estimated 104,000 children in foster care from becoming victims of physical and psychological abuse.

The men and women who bravely fought for our country deserve immediate action and immediate consequences for those VA employees who broke faith with our veterans. Secretary Eric Shinseki was right to step down as head of the VA, but it is clear the problem goes well beyond one person. Fixing this problem requires new management throughout the VA, and a culture of transparency and accountability across the whole system.

Excerpt: "A Special Inspector General would finally give the public a true accounting of the healthcare law, bringing much-needed transparency to a government program that is impacting millions of Americans."

Americans were shocked when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the Affordable Care Act: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” It seemed bad enough that the bill was rushed through Congress with virtually no debate or amendments, but now its architects refuse to give the American people a full picture of the law as it stands today.

Excerpt: "For too long the IRS has had the American people on their heels, coming after individuals based on their political beliefs and bringing the full weight of the federal bureaucracy to bear on people whose only crime was wanting to participate in the debate of ideas we cherish as central to our democratic process."

Excerpt: "Republican alternatives prove that healthcare reform can uphold the doctor-patient relationship and provide accessible, quality care without adding billions to the debt or raising taxes on hardworking American families."

In 2005, North Korea announced plans to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief from the international community. The agreement was hailed as a historic breakthrough by many, who believed diplomacy had successfully averted a nuclear-armed North Korea.